Artist Statement

I live in a body with bones that ache, a heart that beats twice as fast as everyone else’s, and fingertips that go numb. Most of the time my body does not feel like mine. Gender dysphoria, coupled with conditions that impact my vision leave me looking down at my body as if it is someone else’s. This is not a tragedy; it is simply a fact of my existence.

Queer and disabled people are often viewed as unnatural. I respond to this in my work through using natural materials and imagery of the outdoors. My sculptures, photography, and installations reposition the queer and disabled body as being synonymous with nature. Outdoor spaces can be inaccessible, and it is important for me to reclaim my body’s relationship to the environment.

I introduce an alternate trans-disabled reality by utilizing transgender and disability-specific medical objects that are commonly disposed of or hidden away. Through the overlaying of photographs on top of hospital fluorescent lights, weaving flowers in between bandages, and suspending images of the sky within IV bags, I propose a world in which bodies like mine are cared for and celebrated.

Bio

Rora Blue is a queer disabled artist living and working in Reno, Nevada. His current work utilizes soft sculpture and installation to relate queerness and disability to nature, invisibility, and celebration. Blue is the recipient of the VSA Emerging Young Artist Award of Excellence from the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington D.C as well as the International IphiGenia Gender Design Award awarded at the Museum of Applied Art in Cologne, Germany. His work has been exhibited in group exhibitions spanning nine different countries and he has been written about in publications including the New York Times. Blue received his BFA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute and MFA from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2024.